{"id":106160,"date":"2025-08-30T06:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T06:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/106160\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T06:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T06:54:08","slug":"rugby-game-to-remember-royal-navy-helicopter-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/106160\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby game to remember Royal Navy helicopter pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A charity rugby match is to take place in memory of a helicopter pilot who died when his helicopter ditched in the sea.<\/p>\n<p>Lt Rhodri Leyshon, who was based at RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, died on 4 September 2024 when his Merlin Mk4 helicopter made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cy0r7e7q8qvo?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:an emergency landing in water off the Dorset coast;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">an emergency landing in water off the Dorset coast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He had previously played rugby for Cowbridge Rugby Football Club (RFC) and the Welsh University Royal Naval Unit.<\/p>\n<p>Friend and former colleague Isaac Salt said: &#8220;He was a deeply passionate rugby player and an exceptional athlete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The match will see a team of serving military personnel and friends of Lt Leyshon play against his former club at Cardiff Arms Park stadium. It will raise money for Wales Air Ambulance.<\/p>\n<p>Weather permitting, a flypast by 846 Naval Air Squadron, his former unit, will take place before the match.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Salt said dozens of minibuses of Lt Leyshon&#8217;s friends will be travelling from Yeovil to Cardiff for the match.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The individual support has been the most humbling, the sheer number of people who have dipped their hands in their pockets and donated towards it happening,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Lt Rhodri Leyshon in the pilot seat of an aircraft. He wears military uniform and a large helmet with a radio up against his mouth. Water can be seen through the aircraft's window beneath a blue sky. It appears to be sunrise or sunset and the sun is shining an orange glow on his face and clothing.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/7e7e2e9c0dceb3bccf33f6cb76371010.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lt Leyshon\u2019s family said they would &#8220;always have him in our hearts&#8221; [Ministry of Defence]<\/p>\n<p>Lt Leyshon joined the Wales University Royal Naval Unit, which trains students, in 2010 and was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>He undertook flying training, specialising as a commando aviator, and completed a number of overseas deployments, including to the Caribbean, the United States and Norway.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Salt remembered him as a practical joker, who once convinced a player in the rugby match that Wales was in a different time zone during a training exercise there.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He had him working to an hour behind for the two-week exercise to suit the narrative,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Col Mark Johnson, commanding officer of Commando Helicopter Force at Yeovilton, said after Lt Leyshon&#8217;s death that he &#8220;was a consummate professional and a shining light with a bright future&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He epitomised our team spirit and his loss leaves a huge hole in all our hearts,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Follow BBC Somerset on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbcsomerset\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bbcsomerset\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>. Send your story ideas to us on email or via <a href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/47DEoQy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>More on this storyRelated Internet Links<img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756536848_935_\"\/><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A charity rugby match is to take place in memory of a helicopter pilot who died when his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,76290,76294,4892,76291,76292,76287,76289,760,76293,32787,85,76288],"class_list":["post-106160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cowbridge-rugby-football-club","tag-dorset-coast","tag-helicopter","tag-helicopter-pilot","tag-lt-rhodri-leyshon","tag-ministry-of-defence","tag-rnas-yeovilton","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-match","tag-rugby-player","tag-sports","tag-university-royal-naval-unit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}